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墨書 Inktalez
Zuo Yi looked at her with a cold smile, then continued his work. Although his movements appeared clumsy, he was very serious; even the foul odor that made Su Jin'er unable to bear it did not stop him from his "work."
"I know your stomach must be churning, but there's nothing I can do. I will make you watch until I finish everything. I know you must be cursing me in your heart, but it can't be helped. I have to do this because I not only hate you, but I also love you."
Hearing him say he loved her made Su Jin'er’s hair stand on end, but she remained silent, only looking at him coldly.
Zuo Yi reached into the skull without gloves and pulled out the brain entirely, causing Su Jin'er to gag again.
"What are you trying to do?"
"I'm not doing anything. Just let you watch my performance, and then I'll let you go."
"Is that so?"
"Of course not."
"I want to know what that Paper Man is all about."
"That was never a Paper Man; it was me wearing clothes made of paper to scare you on purpose."
"But you were with us many times!"
"At that time, the Paper Man was Mao Qiang. That guy is really not just any kind of fool! I think you must be very curious about what happened the night you first saw the Paper Man, right?" Before Su Jin'er could respond, he continued, "Actually, that Paper Man was me. I lured you out without knowing you would faint; I just wanted to scare you a bit. Unexpectedly, you fainted, and then I took advantage of the situation and found a Paper Man used at funerals to put in your hand. Originally, I wanted to do something else, but when I saw your best friend had come, I left. What I didn't expect was that another person was also hating you at the same time and didn’t know about my existence, thinking it was heaven helping her. However, this just happened to align with my intentions; I wanted you to feel fear."
"Do I have a grudge against you?"
"You do. But maybe you've already forgotten me; however, I clearly remember you."
"So I'm sure you're not Zuo Yi."
"Heh heh, you guessed it long ago! So have you figured out who I am?"
"I've guessed it; you must be that child—the one who was being beaten yet still had strong eyes and refused to give in! Actually, I've always remembered you and have felt sad for not being able to save you that night. For all these years, I've regretted it deeply. I'm truly sorry."
His hand was stiff in mid-air; he really didn't expect her to remember this matter, and that she had been feeling sorry about it all along. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and a bitter smile appeared on his somewhat rigid face. "Heh, I didn't think you still remembered this. I always thought you had forgotten. If I had known about this earlier, perhaps none of this would have happened. But fate is cruel. Since you know now, let me tell you that Wang Fan and Tian Qing were the ones who hit me back then, do you understand? I was originally a kind-hearted kid. If it had only been a beating, I wouldn't have turned out like this. But do you know what else they did?"
Su Jin'er looked at him, completely taken aback that Wang Fan and Tian Qing were the ones who had hurt him before. However, Tian Qing looked completely harmless!
He tore off a human skin mask again, and Su Jin'er stared at him in astonishment. The mask was as thin as egg white; she had only seen such masks in American movies.
However, what surprised her was not the human skin mask but the face beneath it—only a few strands of yellow hair resembling fluff on his head, and his face was riddled with scars, with not a single intact piece of skin.
"Your face?"
He pointed to his own face and said, "This is the reason I became like this. If it weren't for this, I might be in high school right now, perhaps preparing for college entrance exams, or maybe I would have gotten into this university just like you. I like forensic science; I want to catch criminals, just like those police officers. But those few people ruined everything for me. My Dad and Mom abandoned me because of how I look now. For these years, I've survived by scavenging until I met you again."
"What did they do to you?" Su Jin'er looked at him in shock, as if apart from his face, there was no other sign of burns.
"Those bastards! After you left, they took me to a small room where there was a box made of iron sheets. They locked me inside, leaving only my head exposed. They poured gasoline on my face and then set my hair on fire. I couldn't move at all; I could only scream like a slaughtered pig while they stood by laughing. After that, my face became like this."
He spoke as if recounting someone else's story.
Su Jin'er could easily imagine that kind of pain. "Then why haven't they faced any consequences?"
"Consequences? They were all minors at the time, and they insisted that I burned myself. They even claimed they saved me! The police had no evidence, so they could only let them go. That's why I had to take revenge myself. Wang Fan and Tian Qing were the last two; the others are all in prison."
"In prison?"
"They got caught for rape; those people are incorrigible! Meanwhile, Wang Fan and Tian Qing turned over a new leaf and got into university. They caused me to end up like this; of course, I won't let them go. Now they're all dead, and since I've learned that you've always remembered me, my wish has been fulfilled. I'll send you back."
After saying that, he put down what he was holding and wrapped the head in cloth, saying, "I'm going out for a bit. Don't think that just because I've told you all this means I'll let you go; it's best if you stay here quietly."
With that, he took the head and walked out directly, slamming the door behind him. She then heard the sound of the lock clicking shut.
Exhausted, she leaned against the wall, her mind filled with images of his entire head being burned. It truly echoed the saying that every criminal has a heartbreaking story behind them—and he was no exception. But after pretending to be Zuo Yi for so long, where exactly had he hidden Zuo Yi?
Suddenly, a very bad thought appeared in her mind, and she widened her eyes in disbelief.
It can't be, it definitely can't be.
However, tears flowed uncontrollably, and the more she cried, the sadder she became, eventually hugging her knees and crying out loud.
Chu Feifan rushed back to the school home, panting. There was still no sign of Zuo Yi and Su Jin'er at home. He was now certain that Zuo Yi had taken Su Jin'er away, but he couldn't understand why. In just one morning, he had searched almost everywhere he could think of, but he still hadn't found them. He was going crazy with worry.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door outside. Without asking, Chu Feifan opened the door, revealing a weary Captain Xing standing there.
"Captain Xing, did you find anything?"
He shook his head and said, "I have some bad news to tell you. I hope you can handle it."
"Is it about Jin'er? Has something happened to her?" Chu Feifan's eyes were nearly filled with tears from anxiety.
"No, based on the current situation, Jin'er should be safe for now. The one in trouble is someone else."
"Captain Xing, I want to know if it was really Zuo Yi who took Jin'er?"
Captain Xing shook his head.
"That's good to hear; you scared me. But where has Zuo Yi gone? He still has injuries!"
"Actually, Zuo Yi is already dead."
"What? He was just with us! How could he be dead?"
"In fact, we have been deceived by this fake Zuo Yi. The real Zuo Yi died when he was underneath the Old Laboratory Building."
"What?"
"That's right. While the workers were building the house, they dug up two bodies in the basement. One has been confirmed to be Cheng He, but the other one has not been identified because we never suspected it was Zuo Yi's body. Strangely, that body had no hair, so I had Su Jin'er secretly take hair samples from you and Zuo Yi. It turned out that Zuo Yi's hair matched the DNA of that body, so we are certain that the body is indeed Zuo Yi's."
Chu Feifan suddenly collapsed to the ground; this was something he had never anticipated. Zuo Yi was dead, long dead, and they had no idea—absolutely no idea. No wonder he always felt that Zuo Yi had changed too much, giving him a sense of unfamiliarity. However, he had always thought it was due to that drug, and deep down, they did not believe that Zuo Yi was dead.
Captain Xing patted his shoulder and said, "Don't be too sad just yet. We need to find Jin'er first and catch the Killer."
Captain Xing felt exhausted; it was the first time he felt this tired. The events happening at this school caused him great pain. So many vibrant lives had just vanished from this world.
"Any leads?"
"Not at the moment. We have no clues about the Killer at all. However, we did uncover some information about Wang Fan and Tian Qing; they committed some offenses when they were children, before reaching adulthood. I heard they almost burned a child to death once, but there was no evidence and since they were minors, they were not convicted."
"So you mean the Killer could very well be that child?"
"There's a possibility. We also found out that the child was Japanese but grew up in China, so no one knew he was Japanese. His parents abandoned him, so he has never been found. I suspect he might have changed beyond recognition and is now wearing a human skin mask."
"If that's the case, could it be related to Akasaka? Could he be Akasaka's child, which is why Akasaka confessed?"
"There is that possibility, but without evidence, it's just speculation. We can only know for sure once we catch the Killer."
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